


City Screaming

by idyll



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Episode Related, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-09
Updated: 2007-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:30:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idyll/pseuds/idyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the symphony of a thousand voices, accusing and dismayed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	City Screaming

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for _Profiler, Profiled_

Derek hears it long before the pilot announces the approach, or the signs start to appear for the state line. Chicago screams low and insistent, but loud enough for his head to start hurting a hundred miles out, as crow flies or man drives.

It's the symphony of a thousand voices, accusing and dismayed, and he clenches his hand so that he doesn't reach for a phone, doesn't call someone and say, "This is what was done to me, this is what happened, this is what I've kept silent."

He thinks he could choke on the guilt, thinks that he could break under the weight of those that followed in his silent wake, and he isn't quite sure where the line is between scared child and mandatory reporter but he knows he crossed it, and maybe that's why sometimes he can hear the screaming even when he's many states away and trying to sleep in his bed in D.C.

*

They have a lot to say, his team, and they offer words that Derek himself would offer and give, and he knows they're true and sure--the words and the people--but none of it helps.

Because even after he spills his secrets, even after he lays a boy to rest, he hears it: the shriek of the El's brakes like shrill agony; the blare of boat horns on the lake like plaintive cries; the piercing wails of sirens like a desperate screech.

And that is truer than all the words that even Reid knows, or all the comfort that even his mama can give.

Because it never ends, and he's always know that, and that's why he does what he does, and even if he'd spoken the city would still be screaming, will always be screaming.

.End


End file.
